This is a belated blog that has to start somewhere and this is as good a place as any. It's a tale of family visits, a Mediterranean cruise, canine woes, technical troubles and continuing attempts to tame our expansionist vegetation.
Ten days into May, Barbara's brother Robbie and wife Carol flew into Faro airport from South Africa. The weather was wet. Here they are with Barbara on the banks of the Algibre river. Robbie's dark glasses were to protect a troublesome eye.
Their stay was regrettably brief - less than 48 hours; they left again with Barbara on a dawn flight via Lisbon to Venice where they were to spend two days prior to a week-long Mediterranean cruise. On this they were joined by their American son, Bevan, for whose pictures I am grateful.
CATHY MEETING THE ORPHANS
Three days after their departure I returned to Faro airport to fetch my sister Cathy, who was arriving from the UK. She found herself among many hundreds of furious visitors who were stacking up in tumultuous confusion in the arrivals hall.
OFF TO WATER THE GARDEN
The hold up resulted from a dearth of passport officials - just two on duty - along with several out-of-order electronic passport booths. It took Cathy well over an hour to struggle through the melee.
FIRST STOP - DUBROVNIK
Jones was later to report similarly frenzied scenes on her departure from Venice airport when extensive works, failing computers and thousands of home-going cruise ship passengers served to reduce the check-in hall to scenes of bedlam.
SECOND STOP - SANTORINI
Things were not always this way. In my mind's eye I can still see my mother, hatted and gloved, boarding the Comet with her children at Jan Smuts airport en route to England in 1960. No question then of mad mullahs, security issues or body searches.
THIRD STOP - ATHENS
With her Cathy brought the sunshine. As well as providing me with welcome company, she spent hours tending Jones's extensive and ever-thirsty garden, a service for which I was deeply grateful.
My days were largely taken up with the care of animals, mainly dogs - that's our eight, two waifs and two strays - never mind the distinction. Apart from twice-daily walks and meals, the dogs needed various treatments, some of which they failed entirely to see the point of.
FOURTH STOP - SPLIT
Ear squirtings were required for several dogs infected with ear mites, acquired from one of the orphans. On the personal front I three times came across ticks making a meal of me; it was their last meal, one and all.
Problems of a different nature were presented by a non-functioning landline phone and a printer-scanner that refused to scan in the aftermath of a storm. After much searching I found the website niche to report the phone to Meo (formerly Portugal Telecom). Although Meo noted the problem, the company did nothing to resolve it. So I reported it again - equally fruitlessly.
CRUISE SHIP - NORWEGIAN JADE
Finally I visited the Meo shop in Forum Algarve. A Meo bimbo, attended by three bored learner bimbos, spent ten minutes trying to trace my online reports (which I'd printed out in evidence) before confessing that her system was not compatible. No surprise there. She registered the fault as urgent and assured me that Meo would attend to it within 36 hours.
Ten days later, as I was about to cancel the phone line, a Meo technician called to say that he was on the case. He hoped to resolve it within two days - two week-days, that is. At the time of writing, the system is still out of order. Callers get the impression that the phone is ringing. On this side we hear nothing.
MURANO GLASS BOWL FROM VENICE
More troubling - because we can live without a landline - was the non-functioning scanner. The suppliers reported that they could find no fault with it. So I brought it back home and hooked it up again. Try as I might, I couldn't persuade it to talk to my computer.
LUCKY FOOT
The suppliers said they could reconfigure it remotely. But first I needed to connect it to the computer with a USB to USB cable. I went into Loule to buy one.
USB-A TO USB-B
It didn't connect. The problem, my gurus said, was that my cable had two USB-A fittings. What I needed was a USB-A to USB-B cable. Back to Loule. The second cable fitted and the printer-scanner was eventually prodded back to life.
CRUISE SHIPS AT ANCHOR - SANTORINI
Another trip was to Faro to renew my driving licence, a rigmarole that septuagenarians have to undergo every two years. The doctor doing the check-ups was the same man I'd encountered two years earlier. "How are things?" he asked me. Apart from a dodgy back, I told him, I was in good shape. "That's okay then," said he, completing and signing the necessary form. "See you again in two years." What an excellent judge of character: a man after my own heart!
On the extended garden front Nelson has plunged into the serried ranks of thistles, harpoon grasses and dandelions. The task is akin to fighting the tide with a bucket. However, Nelson doesn't mind and puts in a solid eight hours without complaint. To improve matters further, Slavic and Andre have concreted over our weed-encrusted gravel paths, improving their aspect and easing our passage.
Barbara returned home at the weekend to report a satisfying cruise with an outstanding crew, an delicious choice of food and fascinating stops en route. This was good news. Her grey cat, which had taken itself off on the day of her departure, reappeared on the night of her return.
PS. Our phone is back in order!
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